Stencil Technologies CEO Shares Hard-Earned Lessons at Botswana Innovation Masterclass

Stencil Technologies CEO Shares Hard-Earned Lessons at Botswana Innovation Masterclass. Local entrepreneurs and business leaders gathered for a powerful open-class masterclass on Wednesday, hosted in partnership with Stanford Seed Network and Stanbic Bank. The featured speaker was Ogone Mothooagae, founder and CEO of Stencil Technologies, who shared practical insights from his journey in Botswana’s fast-evolving tech space.

Mothooagae captivated attendees by detailing the development of agentBo, a generative AI-powered customer engagement tool. The platform, part of Stencil’s communications-as-a-service suite, is designed to streamline business-to-consumer interactions on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook—offering integrated services like payments and eKYC.

Speaking candidly about his entrepreneurial path, Mothooagae reflected on the early days of Stencil, including bootstrapping the company with personal savings and landing his first contract worth around P30,000. “Resilience is everything when the profits don’t show up right away,” he said. He encouraged startups to focus on building solutions that are essential, not just impressive: “If your solution isn’t essential, rethink your approach.”

Mothooagae also spoke about the impact of the Stanford Seed Program on his leadership style, stressing the importance of refining systems and staying hands-on. “I still review code to ensure my developers stay sharp,” he noted, underscoring a CEO’s role in maintaining product quality and team alignment.

For Botswana’s entrepreneurs, the session delivered valuable real-world lessons on innovation, product-market fit, and long-term vision. It also reinforced the message that world-class tech can be built and scaled from Botswana.